Rain Barrel

This year my 4-H club and I started decided to do something unique--we decided to learn about the importance of water conservation and ways we can actually conserve water. We came across a very helpful woman, Pat Rector who is a from the Rutgers Cooperative Extension. Pat came to one of our club meetings and spent time explaining the benefits of water conservation. She introduced us to the rain barrel. We learned all about rain barrels--how to build them, how to install them, where to buy them, how they are used, what they should and shouldn't be used for etc. We spent time learning and building our own rain barrel with Pat. This taught us the importance of preserving our resources and the easy steps people take and we CAN take to make a difference in the World.

Roasted Banana Peels Added to Soil

Why should we do this?

• It adds phosphorus and potassium which are both very good for plant health.
• For people who have composting restrictions or do not wish to compost, can still help save our landfills trash.
• It is easy and can be fun!

How to do this?

1. Place banana on a tray and put it in the oven.
   
   
   
   
   

   

   

   
   
2. Take the peels out and wait for them to dry.
3. 

   When they’re dry, cut them into smaller pieces and put in soil.
   
4. Use as fertilizer. Spread the banana peel around houseplants and garden plants. The cooked peels will fertilize the plants as they break down.
   
   You don't even have to waste your electricity by starting the oven. When baking cake or cooking some turkey on Thanksgiving, you can easily fit the tray of banana peels on the side and they will roast on their own. I used this method with my plants and it worked very well!

Khushi's 4-H Project

TREASURING THE TRASH 

Trying to treasure the trash sounds like a complicated job, but it isn't as hard as it seems. You can treasure many of the things you throw away daily and use them as everyday materials. Ever wonder  what to do with your old shirts besides donating them? Have you ever needed some reusable bags that you can use for grocery shopping or storage keeping? And don't want to pay five dollars or maybe even ten dollars buying them at a super market? Don't worry because I have the perfect idea for you. Make shirt bags!! It's that easy. No mess, no waste. And you won't even need to buy any supplies for this activity. All you will need is your old shirts, scissors, a needle and thread or tape, and any other decorating supplies you need to add your personal touch to the bag.

-Khushi  Nigam

Unqiue Ways of Composting!

For my 4-H presentation, I did some research and experiments on the unique ways of composting.

One of my topics was lemon in compost. I learned that lemon can be added to the compost and this helps the compost in that it manages the pH in the compost, gets ride of the color, and increases the speed of the composting. However, there has to be limited amount of lemon in the compost. There shouldn't be more than one lemon skin in one layer of compost (a layer is a proportion of food waste and yard waste from one week's collection).

Next, I researched the different things that can be added to the compost bin. I was surprised to learn that you can add unique things like almost all farm animals' manure, soy milk, and even urine. This was very intriguing and I hope in my compost I can start to add some more unique wastes!

My next topic was the comparison of plants with compost and plants without compost. I sowed marigold seeds in three different types of soils: regular, organic, and compost.
My observations:

• regular soil- very slow growth
• organic soil- all seeds did not germinate; growth was relatively faster than regular soil.
• compost - all seeds germinated as fast as organic soil, and the plant was healthier and taller.

EMK School Garden

Last year Nicole Auker, a parent volunteer at Ethel McKnight Elementary School in East Windsor NJ contacted me to do a composting project with her school. She was very welcoming and appreciative of my work and ideas. We sat together and brainstormed ideas as to how we could incorporate the composting project to teach kids ranging from grades pre-k to 5th grade.
We decided to have a 25 minute composting session per class and made a curriculum. In this session we first gave them a little lesson about the benefits and uses of composting--depth of the lesson depended on their grade level. Next, we did a composting experiment with them. We divided the classes into two groups: groups A and B. Both groups were planting some sort of plant--either basil, parsley, or cilantro. Group A filled their cups up with compost and normal soil. Group B filled their cups with only soil. Then, a month later the class saw the results of their plants.
We decided to do this so that the kids have a hands-on activity with composting and see the results themselves. Also, I wanted to try this because it was a different approach from the usual.
All in all, I loved this event because I learned a lot about all different kinds of learning styles of kids and it taught me a lot about how a lot of people are in fact impressed with composting.

Happy to promote Mercer County 4-H and Composting at 2013 NJ Agriculture Convention as the Mercer County Ambassador

Participating at the Agriculture Convention promoting Composting - http://www.mercerspace.com/news/4-h-ambassador-attends-convention/

Got unique opportunity to present benefits for sustainability at Youth Tedx Talk

On November 16th 2012, I was invited to give a Youth TedX talk at the Princeton library about my accomplishments with composting in the community. Kim Dorman and Janie Hermann were the two very helpful organizers who held the program and helped me present my TedX talk in a professional and elegant manner. I thank them! Below is a link to a video of my TedX talk!